New Speaker Announcement!

Portland Oregon’s Mike Merrill is a unique individual. He is the world’s only publicly traded person. What does this mean? It means that Mr. Merrill’s life is directed by his shareholders, and you can buy stock in him and vote on his future at http://kmikeym.com/. This means that his life and his life story is entangled in a cybernetic control loop of sorts. Because of this, Mr. Merrill will be giving a talk on Community through Capitalism, a Personal Take on Cybernetic Management.

Speech Overview

Norbert Wiener defined cybernetics as the study of regulation, control and communications in life forms and the machine. In a business context, such an approach helps managers understand and deal with complex situations. Mike Merrill argues that what works for business also works for the individual. He is a publicly-traded person that allows his shareholders to guide him through the complex situations in his own life. Complex personal decisions about things like procreation, professional affiliations, volunteer work, politics, and even his dating life are controlled by people who purchased a stake in his future.

About Mr. Merrill

Just as a person might say their parents want the best for them and are invested in their future, Mike Merrill’s parents are literally invested. As are co-workers, ex-girlfriends, and his community of friends and collaborators. And a handful of strangers. Mike Merrill has been a publicy-traded person since 2008 and a fan of applying the principles of business to his personal life since long before that. He is struggling to read Stafford Beer’s Cybernetics and Management writing up a Relationship Contract with the girl he is seeing.

New Speaker Announcement!

We’re excited to have Geoloqi platform engineer Kyle Drake give a deep dive into Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, and the past and future of money.

Bitcoin and Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin is touted for its many improvements to traditional currency. It is easy to transfer, requires no central authority to administer, works across political boundaries, and is easy to use.

But beyond the practical niceties and technical implementation details is the true intention of its pseudonymous inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, who has now vanished and is unwilling to tell his story. Bitcoin is trying to solve a much larger problem: the flaws of present-day centralized currencies that lead to economic instability.

The Future of Cryptocurrencies and Money

But will it work? In this talk, Drake will demystify currency and delve into the fundamentals of economic exchange. I will discuss how currencies work, what gives them their value, some of their flaws, and how these flaws manifest themselves in our world. Drake will discuss how decentralized cryptocurrencies propose to solve these problems, the rearchitecture of our economic lives that would happen if we used them for everything, and their potential flaws.

About Kyle Drake

Kyle Drake is a platform engineer at Geoloqi, Inc. He’s into Startups, Software Engineering, Economics, Bitcoin, GIS, and Low Power Radio. Want to ask Kyle any questions before his talk? Follow him at @kyledrake or visit his website at http://kyledrake.net/.

Sensebridge wants to sponsor a $1000 prize for innovations in wearable “cyborg” devices. It would go to a new or pre-existing DIY electronics/software device which augments humans in some way. This session is to discuss the details of how exactly the contest should work: the rules.

Potential rules include: video submission requirements, working prototype requirements, Instructables requirements, writeup requirements, etc. What’s required, what’s optional, and what’s value add? Should there be money for second place? Different categories each with some prize money? Should people be able to vote on the coolest projects? (if so, is there good software to manage that?).

About Eric Boyd

Eric Boyd co-founded sensebridge.net and sensebridge.com, where he sells wearable electronic senses and electronic jewelry. Products include the North Paw, which is a compass anklet that vibrates to tell you where north is, and the Heart Spark, a pendant that flashes lights in time with your heart beat. Eric lives and works in Toronto, Canada.

Wouldn’t it be nice if your colleague’s phone could SMS its location to you? If you know position and velocity, you know when they’ll arrive. The result: the interface disappears. No redundant actions or queries. The same software could turn your lights on as you approach the house. Or automatically “check in” to certain locations for you. Or leave a note for yourself the next time you’re at the store.

In the presentation, Geoloqi founder Amber Case will highlight why developers of apps should look at what users want to do now, as well as what users want to do in the future, why social apps should try to mirror real-world relationships, why sharing should be about who you share with as well as how long you’re sharing, and why developers should think about how to make apps “ambient” and require less user interaction.

About Amber Case

Amber Case is a cyborg anthropologist studying the interaction between humans and technology. She is the founder of Geoloqi (geo-low-key), Inc., a company bringing the future of location to the world. She’s spoken at TED and around the world, and has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, WIRED and more.

CyborgCamp is an unconference about the future of the relationship between humans and technology. We’ll discuss topics such as social media, design, code, inventions, web 2.0, twitter, the future of communication, cyborg technology, anthropology, psychology, and philosophy.

We’d love to have you as a sponsor or speaker! Simply get in touch with Willow. Want a free ticket? We’re now accepting blog entries on topics related to cyborg culture in exchange for tickets. Want to speak? Send us a speech descriptions to apply as a guaranteed speaker!